


Bride's Tears

by devilinthedetails



Category: PIERCE Tamora - Works, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Courtly Love, F/M, Legann, Love, Rain, garden
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 11:50:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19393543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devilinthedetails/pseuds/devilinthedetails
Summary: Shinko and Roald watch rain fall in the gardens of Legann castle. Set during the Great Progress in Squire.





	Bride's Tears

Bride’s Tears

“I apologize for the rain.” Roald’s quiet voice was barely audible over the drumbeat of rain pounding against the roof of the pavilion when their stroll through Legann castle’s extensive gardens was interrupted by a sudden storm swept off the Emerald Ocean. Yuki and Haname, who had chaperoned them on this walk, stood several paces behind them, comparing whose hair and shoes had been more drenched in the abruptly arriving downpour. “Port Legann is a beautiful city but also one prone to sudden storms.” 

“Sudden storms were quite common in the Yamani Islands.” Shinko didn’t see why her fiancé should apologize for the weather when he didn’t control it. “I think it must have something to do with being mountainous islands. They are surrounded by the ocean, and when the ocean melts into the sky, all the water gets so trapped by the mountains that it can only fall on the islands.” 

As soon as the words left her lips, she feared they sounded foolish, but Roald didn’t seem to think so, for he shot her a tentative grin. “Legann’s coast is lined with bluffs. Perhaps they trap the water from the ocean just like the mountains of the Yamani Islands.” His slight smile grew as he found the courage to share a confidence. “I don’t mind the rain even if others do. I find the sound of it soothing.” 

“The drops are like the music of drums when they beat against the pavilion,” murmured Shinko, staring at the rain falling in crystalline streams to the stone paths that crisscrossed Legann’s gardens. “In the Yamani Islands, the ceilings of our pavilions are sloped so that they make patterns of the rain as it falls to the ground. We call those patterns a veil of pearls or bride’s tears.” 

“Bride’s tears and a veil of peals?” Roald tilted his head, eyes considering her curiously. “How did the Yamani come to link such different images?” 

“In the Yamani Islands, brides often wear a veil of pearls for luck when they marry their husbands.” Gazing into his eyes and trying not to think of how she had sailed away from everything she had ever known and everyone she had ever loved in the Yamani Islands to come marry him, a prince she had never met, she went on in a whisper, “Most brides are weeping under their veil of pearls when they wed because they are leaving their homes–their families–forever to enter their husband’s house where their mother-in-law can order them about for the rest of their lives.” 

“You had to leave your home and family in the Yamani Islands to come here to marry me.” Roald sometimes seemed capable of reading her mind. It should have disconcerted her, but often it comforted her instead. 

“It was my duty.” Shinko inclined her head, acknowledging his comment but refusing to surrender to any urge to self-pity his remark might have invited in her.

“I hope you didn’t weep on the voyage to Tortall to marry me.” Startlingly perceptive as always, Roald reached out to take her hand. He didn’t lift her fingers to his lips for a kiss. He just squeezed them lightly between his own. 

“I didn’t,” Shinko assured him with as elegant a head shake as she could muster. She had wondered and worried about what he would be like for the entire journey from the Yamani Islands to Tortall, but she hadn’t permitted herself the indulgence of crying. She had forced herself to be stronger–to be more poised even in private–than that. 

“Good.” Roald gave her hand a final gentle squeeze before releasing it. “I wouldn’t ever have you weep for me.” 

He spoke softly as ever, but Shinko was impressed by the strength he put into the words, transforming them into a solemn, strong vow that brought her more serenity than anything else in Tortall could have. She was far from her home in the Yamani Islands but with Roald beside her she believed she could create a new one in Tortall.


End file.
